… none of them relating to disappearance of British tot
German police – who have been insisting that Christian Brückner is the principal suspect in the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine McCann – have now charged the 45-year-old with five sex crimes that allegedly took place in Portugal.
The offences involve three counts of aggravated rape, and two of child sexual assault.
They are said to have taken place between December 28, 2000 and June 11, 2017.
German public prosecutors office in Braunschweig have said in a statement: “The accused is the same person against whom charges were brought in connection with the disappearance of the then 3-year-old British girl Madeleine Beth McCann.”
As the British Telegraph newspaper explains: “German investigators believe the 45-year-old killed Madeleine, then three, after abducting her from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 2007.
“Last year, German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said investigators have enough evidence to bring a charge against Brueckner but “want to strengthen their position first”.
“He told the Mirror the team were “100 per cent convinced” that the British girl was killed by Brueckner.
“Convicted child abuser and drug trader Brueckner is in jail in Germany for raping a woman in Praia da Luz in 2005”.
He was formally identified as an official suspect in the McCann case in April this year.
Brueckner, or Brückner as many reports spell the surname, has consistently denied involvement in the case.
His lawyer Friedrich Fülscher has suggested the suspicions against Brückner are part of a ‘witchhunt’
‘What are the new charges’, asks Telegraph
This is where it gets confusing: Christian Bruckner “is accused of raping a woman in her 70s in a holiday apartment in Portugal on an unknown date between 2000 and 2006.
“Prosecutors also say Brueckner raped a 20-year-old Irish woman in Praia da Rocha in 2004.
“He is also accused of orally raping a teenage girl in her home in Praia da Luz after tying her up and whipping her on an unknown date between 2000 and 2006.
“He is claimed to have filmed the abuse.
“Brueckner also allegedly exposed himself to a 10-year-old German girl in Faro in 2007 and to a 11-year old Portuguese girl in São Bartolomeu de Messines in 2017”.
Certainly the rapes have been consistently addressed in the past – with Brückner and his lawyer providing evidence which they say shows he could not have committed the rape in Praia da Rocha. He is currently serving jail-time in Germany for the first rape – and the 3rd rape has also been refuted by Brückner’s defence.
